In 1984 Hornsby formed Bruce Hornsby & the Range, who were signed to RCA Records in 1985. Besides Hornsby, Range members were David Mansfield (guitar, mandolin, violin), George Marinelli (guitars and backing vocals), Joe Puerta (bass guitar and backing vocals), and John Molo (drums).
During the 1990s he toured with the Grateful Dead, and released four albums, including A Night on the Town (1990) after which he split from The Range. Harbor Lights (1993) was his first solo album and signaled Hornsby was moving in a new jazz-influenced direction, whilst retaining elements of rock and pop. Later releases include Hot House (1995) and Spirit Trail (1998).
His experimental album Big Swing Face (2002) attracted much criticism as it veered away from his piano-based style. Despite these criticisms, he returned with his next studio album, shrugging off RCA and signing to Sony Music Entertainment. Halcyon Days, released in 2004, saw a return to the piano as the key instrument; this album also became the premise for his world tour the same year.
Hornsby continues to tour with his live band "The Noisemakers", in addition to solo shows and his progressive bluegrass performances with Ricky Skaggs.
In 2007 he released Camp Meeting, his first total jazz album as The Bruce Hornsby Trio, which involved jazz giants, Jack DeJohnette and Christian McBride with whom he made live appearances with throughout 2007.
In March 2007 Hornsby teamed with bluegrass player Ricky Skaggs to produce a bluegrass album, Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby, and played several tour dates together. The seeds for the album had been sown in 2000 when the pair collaborated on "Darlin' Cory", a track on the Big Mon Bill Monroe bluegrass tribute album and then proposed recording an album together. Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby, featuring the duo backed by Skaggs's band Kentucky Thunder, combined bluegrass, traditional country, "a tinge of Hornsby's jazzy piano and a splash of humor" on a spectrum of songs from the traditional to new compositions such as the opening track "The Dreaded Spoon," "a humorous tale of a youthful ice cream heist. The pair also reinvented Hornsby's hit "Mandolin Rain" as a minor key acoustic ballad and "give his cautionary tale of backwoods violence", "A Night On the Town," a treatment highlighting the "Appalachian storytelling tradition that was always at the song's heart. The album ended with a surprise cover of Rick James's funk hit "Super Freak" in a bluegrass arrangement. Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby topped Billboard's bluegrass charts for several weeks. The album showed Hornsby carving out a place for piano within traditional bluegrass, disproving the notion that the piano is not compatible with "string-oriented" bluegrass.
Concurrently with the bluegrass project, Hornsby recorded a jazz album, Camp Meeting. with Christian McBride (bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums). Alongside original compositions by Hornsby, the trio delivered "newly reharmonized versions" of tunes by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell, a previously unrecorded Ornette Coleman work ("Questions and Answers") and an early Keith Jarrett composition ("Death and the Flower.") The trio made a series of appearances in the summer of 2007, including the Playboy Jazz Festival, the Newport Jazz Festival and at the Hollywood Bowl.
On January 4, 2007, former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart reunited along with Hornsby, Mike Gordon (of Phish and the Rhythm Devils) and Warren Haynes to play two sets. including Dead classics, at a post-inauguration fundraising party for Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House in the United States Congress.
Hornsby wrote songs for a Broadway Musical, titled "SCKBSTD"; one song from this project, a playful biographical tune about real-estate tycoon Donald Trump titled "The Don of Dons," made several appearances in setlists during his early-2007 solo piano performances. He also composed the score for Spike Lee's ESPN documentary, Kobe Doin' Work, about NBA star Kobe Bryant and his MVP season.
Outside of music composition and performance, Hornsby has taken an ownership interest in Williamsburg area radio station "The Tide," WTYD 92.3 FM, and he has endowed the Bruce Hornsby Creative American Music Program at University of Miami's Frost School of Music, encouraging the study of songwriting broadly across traditional genres. Hornsby played himself in a cameo role in the Robin Williams movie World's Greatest Dad, in which Williams' character is a Bruce Hornsby fan.
He has also been honored by piano makers Steinway & Sons with their Limited Edition Signature Piano Series. Hornsby selected ten Model B Steinway Grands to be featured in this collection, each one personalized with his signature. Hornsby owns three 9-foot Model D Steinway Grands himself.
Sticks and Stones
Bruce Hornsby Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Thunder thighs, juicing all turning red
Pizza face pop it quick old nasty old
Pits old panty waist
Knotty headed fatty cakes
Oh sticks and stones can break my bones
But your words always hurt me the most
Blow up and lose my head well I hope I don't (I hope I don't)
Gousy ass drool face old beady-eyed
Fat half-a-deck big ones like old dick speck
Nasty buckteeth stainbreath zit-faced fetus
Brain sucking wind twinin', hummin' funkenstain
Oh sticks and stones can break my bones
But your words always hurt me the most
My scars will heal but the slurs won't
Blow up and lose my head well I hope I don't (Well, I hope I don't)
Sucking wind oh tell me when does it end
Oh sticks and stones can break my bones
But your words always hurt me the most
My scars will heal but the slurs won't
Blow up and lose my head well I hope I don't (Hey...mmmm)
My skin is so thin you can see through it
Oh, laughing your asses off oh don't do it
Laughing our asses off dying our slow death
Talkin' about the buckteeth stainbreath
The lyrics to Bruce Hornsby's song "Sticks and Stones" are a reflection on bullying and the lasting impact of hurtful words. The song conjures up a scene of a group of kids taunting and name-calling another child, using descriptors such as "scabby head," "knotty-headed fatty cakes," and "gousy ass drool face." The chorus repeats the schoolyard adage that "sticks and stones can break my bones, but your words always hurt me the most," suggesting that despite the physical pain of being hit with sticks and stones, the emotional pain caused by name-calling and taunting can be even more damaging. The song ends with the plea, "My skin is so thin you can see through it / Oh, laughing your asses off don't do it," perhaps an appeal to the bullies to recognize the harm they are causing.
The song was included on Hornsby's 1998 album "Spirit Trail," which was a departure from his previous work and explored themes of spirituality and self-discovery. "Sticks and Stones" has been interpreted as being specifically about childhood bullying, but its themes are universal and can apply to many situations in which people are made to feel small or inferior by the words and actions of others. The song's chorus has entered into popular culture and is now widely used as a reminder of the power of words to hurt.
Line by Line Meaning
Scabby head knobby kneed old nappy head
Calling someone ugly and unkempt
Thunder thighs, juicing all turning red
Making fun of someone's big thighs and overheating face
Pizza face pop it quick old nasty old
Insulting someone's acne and age
Pits old panty waist
Mocking someone's weak underarms and physique
Knotty headed fatty cakes
Insulting someone's hair and weight
Oh sticks and stones can break my bones
Common phrase meaning physical harm can be endured
But your words always hurt me the most
Saying that insults are more painful than physical injury
My scars will heal but the slurs won't
Wounds heal but emotional pain stays longer
Blow up and lose my head well I hope I don't (I hope I don't)
Trying not to lose control of emotions despite feelings of anger or sadness
Gousy ass drool face old beady-eyed
Demeaning someone's appearance and mannerisms
Fat half-a-deck big ones like old dick speck
Mocking someone's weight and genitalia
Nasty buckteeth stainbreath zit-faced fetus
Insulting someone's teeth, bad breath, and age
Brain sucking wind twinin', hummin' funkenstain
Making fun of someone's intelligence and name-calling
Sucking wind oh tell me when does it end
Expressing frustration and questioning the constant barrage of insults
My skin is so thin you can see through it
Feeling overly sensitive and vulnerable to criticism
Oh, laughing your asses off oh don't do it
Pleading with others to stop laughing and making fun
Laughing our asses off dying our slow death
Feeling hurt and dying a little inside from the insults
Talkin' about the buckteeth stainbreath
Continuing the mocking and name-calling
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: JAMES MILNE WALSH, SACHA SKARBEK
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind